Invasive Plant Ecology and Management

Tom is a research Ecologist with USDA-ARS, Forage and Range Research Laboratory in Logan, Utah. He principally studies plant-soil interactions of invasive weeds and develop strategies to improve vegetation management of shrub-steppe ecosystems of the Great Basin. He works closely with plant breeders, private landowners, and natural resource managers to better understand and restore vegetation dynamics that lead to stable, diverse, and productive rangelands. His past research describes differential responses of numerous perennial grasses and invasive annual grasses to changes in soil resources and herbicide application. Tom has recently conducted landscape-scale research to evaluate plant materials and management strategies to stabilize salt desert shrub ecosystems invaded by Bromus tectorum. Roger is an Invasive Plant Ecologist with USDA-ARS, Range and Forage Meadow Management Research Unit in Burns, Oregon. His entire career has focused on understanding ecological processes that drives invasion and using that knowledge to create ecological principles for management. He has been a key principle in the development of Ecologically-based Invasive Plant Management (EBIPM), started the Center for Invasive Plant Management at Montana State University, and managed the Area-wide Implementation of EBIPM for the Agricultural Research Service. Roger has published over 100 refereed journal articles on invasion biology, restoration, and arid land management. His current research focuses on using life-history analysis to identify and quantify those ecological processes that are central to directing invasion and succession and developing management strategies that alter those processes to create desired vegetation trajectories in range and wild ecosystems.

• PART I: Assessing ecosystem processes and invasive plant impacts 1: Managing invasive species in heterogeneous ecosystems 2: Linking disturbance regimes, vegetation dynamics, and plant strategies across complex landscapes to mitigate and manage plant invasions 3: Land-use legacy effects of cultivation on ecological processes 4: Resource pool dynamics: conditions that regulate species interactions and dominance 5: Invasive plant impacts on soil properties, nutrient cycling, and microbial communities PART 2: Principles and practices to influence ecosystem change 6: Weather variability, ecological processes, and optimization of soil micro-environment for rangeland restoration 7: The effects of plant-soil feedbacks on invasive plants: mechanisms and potential management options 8: Species performance: the relationship between nutrient availability, life history traits, and stress 9: Reducing invasive plant performance: a precursor to restoration 10: Revegetation: using current technologies and ecological knowledge to manage site availability, species availability, and species performance